Page 17: of Marine News Magazine (August 2023)

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generation dual-purpose vessels. Accordingly, the National manager model is indisputable. The key now is for law-

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, required makers in D.C. to expand this successful model, with the “an entity other than the Maritime Administration to clear next target being the Ready Reserve Force (RRF). contract for the construction of” the NSMVs. The stated Age has ? nally caught up with the RRF, resulting in only

Congressional goal was to “leverage the ship construction forty percent (40%) of RRF vessels being available when expertise of… a commercial operator when contracting for called upon during a no-notice turbo activation in Sep- the construction of the vessel.” This act should be viewed tember 2019. The condition of these national assets cre- as a moment of divine political inspiration. ates a clear national security vulnerability, potential leaving

This Congressional direction led to a MARAD contract war? ghters without critical sea lines of communication. award to TOTE Services in May 2019, leveraging their While MARAD has begun the recapitalization effort deep experience in commercial vessel construction. In through its vessel acquisition manager (another successful turn, TOTE Services awarded the initial vessel construc- government-industry partnership) new vessel construction tion contract in April 2020 to Philly Shipyard. The timing remains a key aspect of the long-term RRF recapitalization is notable, as it corresponds to the month when most States effort. However, what is abundantly clear is that relying on issued disaster declarations in response to startling rises in traditional government shipbuilding processes will not be

COVID-19 infections. Notwithstanding these challenges, suf? cient to meet the government’s time-sensitive sealift and working with government-granted exceptions to stay- needs. However, thanks to the NSMV program, there is a at-home orders, TOTE Services and Philly Shipyard were proven process that the government can rely upon to ad- able to push forward with the ? nal design of the NSMV, dress these challenges. It is now up to Congress to seize beginning fabrication of NSMV I in December 2020. Keel upon the opportunity and to appropriate funding to ad- laying subsequently occurred in December 2021. Again, dress this critical national security need, through the use of the timing is notable as TOTE Services and Philly Shipyard a vessel construction manger model.

were faced with using commercial expertise to overcome supply challenges that plagued the shipbuilding industry.

The ultimate result is that, notwithstanding COVID-19 or unprecedented supply chain challenges, the commercial sector in partnership with MARAD is delivering a ? rst-to- class mariner training and HA/DR support vessel in just over two-and-a-half years from when production began.

An astonishing result in which the maritime industry and

MARAD should take tremendous pride.

To any legislator or executive branch leader involved in government shipbuilding the message should be clear—reli- ance on the commercial sector through the vessel construc- tion manager model simply works. In contrast to this suc- cess, in April 2022, the Government Accountability Of? ce (GAO) released a scathing review of the Navy’s shipbuilding program ? nding that “the lead ships for six Navy programs experienced delays in providing the ships to the ? eet, ranging from 6 months to 6 years, and cost growth as high as 154 per- cent.” In addition, the GAO “found that the Navy regularly accepts delivery of incomplete ships with signi? cant uncor- rected de? ciencies. Issues with the quality and readiness of delivered ships can lead to longer-term problems.” The GAO report concludes, “Collectively, these results have raised ques- tions about the Navy’s ability to effectively oversee shipbuild- er performance throughout the construction of new ships.”

Accordingly, when compared to traditional government shipbuilding, the ef? ciency and effectiveness of partner- ing with commercial industry under a vessel construction www.marinelink.com MN 17|